To take advantage of opportunities/solve problems, the need for a greater than local/cross-boundary approach can be seen. Regional cooperation is the nominal tool, yet the goal is to be greater; have greater capacity, resources, market,…. Greater is regional; working across boundaries achieves it. Cooperation is possible when people recognize such regional community. This is regional intelligence: Greater Communities solving problems, of which security is foremost; altogether “community motive.”

Hampton Roads residents can expect to begin paying new taxes and fees beginning Jan. 1, after Isle of Wight on Thursday became the seventh local government to recognize the new Hampton Roads Transportation Authority.

When combined with tolls that will likely be placed on certain roads, the money will help pay for six major road projects at the region's most congested highways.

The 3-2 vote by the Isle of Wight County Board of Supervisors came after another round of contentious debate over the role of regional government and the need to fix Hampton Roads' groaning network of roads, bridges and tunnels.

"It was a difficult decision, " said Thomas Ivy, the board's chairman who frequently had to gavel to silence the packed room in the small county courthouse.

Supporters and opponents both saw the vote in historic terms.

Regional planners said it was the first opportunity in a generation to raise money for a group of projects that have proved too costly to finance without significant sums of new tax money.

"Finally, after 21 years, Hampton Roads finally has an opportunity to take control of its destiny and fix some of these problems, " said Art Collins, executive director of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, which has warned for years that congestion threatened to strangle the region's economy.

"This is a great day, " he said. "I've been waiting for it for a long time."

Opponents saw it in more stark terms, calling it a dark day that promised an uncontrolled regional government with the power to tax residents in cities where the local council had voted against such plans.

Talk of regionalism in Northeast Ohio typically begins with an ambitious look at countywide governance and ends with most of us too timid to take the leap.

But what if we began with baby steps?

What would you say about merging some of our suburbs? Are our municipal identities worth millions of dollars in duplicated services? Does a region of our size need hundreds of city council members, scores of fire chiefs and dozens of libraries?

Would those of us who live in Parma and Parma Heights, for instance, agree to unite if it would lower our taxes? Would those of us in Eastlake and Willoughby join hands if our fire protection might improve?

The Plain Dealer posed similar questions to our suburban leaders and neighbors for a second installment of "A Region Uniting?" series, which explores the possible benefits of increased cooperation among governments.

What we found might surprise you. Despite predictable misgivings, many of us would agree to mergers. Even some of us whose jobs would be lost.

Parma Heights Mayor Marty Zanotti is one. The reason: Survival.

Zanotti's city already struggles to pay for the services that its 20, 000-plus residents expect. And that's with a 3 percent municipal income tax - the highest in the state. So what happens when that tax isn't enough to keep 34 police officers and 29 firefighters in uniform? Where will the money come from? The population is aging, and the city is fully developed.

One possibility is a merger with Parma, with four times the people and five times the land. The two suburbs have much in common, including a school district they share with Seven Hills.

The combined city - "Parma Plus" has a certain ring - would have more than 100, 000 people.

Mike Harcourt (past Mayor and Premier) and Ken Cameron (past regional planner) talked about what’s in their new book, written with Sean Rossiter: City Making in Paradise: Nine decisions that shaped the Greater Vancouver Region.

“First-hand perspectives from those who did the shaping with comments from a panel of ‘new leaders’-the shapers of today.”

The book is dedicated to Walter Hardwick, who, he said, has received less than his fair share of credit for the Livable Region.

The nine decisions reflect Leadership and the Real City: that is bigger than GVRD. It is an organic entity [the “functional urban region” in planning speak]. Up until World War II the political body coincided with that region, but its growth afterwards rapidly outstripped the city itself. It is now a much larger area, with a “matrix of decision making authorities”.

The Nine Decisions

1. Lower Mainland Regional Planning Board: produced the vision of “cities in a sea of green” which was, in large measure, a response to the devastation of the 1948 flood

4. The Livable Region proposal 1975 – which recognised that planning was a process not product.

5. Expo ‘86 with the legacy of the False Creek development and Skytrain

6. “Choosing our future” largely the work of Gordon Campbell, which set out for the first time the transportation priorities – pedestrians first, then transit, then freight and only at the end car use. The Green Zone was also frost defined here

7. The Livable Region Strategic Plan, which for the first time set out a plan for growth management and transportation together as an integrated whole

Tobacco users who are spending 80 cents more per pack of cigarettes or container of smokeless tobacco should know their money is going toward an initiative aimed at making more of Arizona’s children healthy and ready to learn when they start school.

Called First Things First, the initiative will have a dedicated funding stream of $150 million a year to pay for its many-faceted approach to preparing kids for success in the future.

According to First Things First, children who are served by the program are expected to have better reading, language and social skills; perform better on standardized tests; have higher graduation rates; go to college; and have higher-paying jobs as adults.

Although the funding will come from state tobacco taxes, the money will be allocated to regional councils, which will use the funding to address local early childhood development needs.

“It’s critical that it be locally driven, ” said First Things First representative Donna Migliori, who explained the program and its goals to local early childhood educators, parents and caregivers at a June 12 meeting.

Although First Things First is about two years away from starting regional programs, state officials are in the process of laying the groundwork to ensure the initiative is successful.

Regional boundaries are expected to be in place by September. Several who attended the June 12 meeting recommended that Graham and Greenlee counties should form one region.

Activities of each region will be overseen by a regional council that is made up of 11 members appointed by the Early Childhood Development and Health Board. …

After initial concern about the impact of New Haven of Yale's decision to buy Bayer's abandoned property in West Haven, Mayor John DeStefano said Wednesday that he now sees the transaction as more of a wake-up call to the region about economic development.

...city's economic strategy has been to help Yale encourage researchers to launch businesses and create jobs and new tax revenue -- in the city, not the suburbs.

... Mayor DeStefano said his thinking evolved on the issue the past few days. Here's what he said:

"The interesting thing to me is more of a macro issue. I don't have concerns that Yale is moving out of the city. I don't have concerns that it is going to dramatically impact New Haven.

"We have had two large private sector campuses - Anthem and Bayer - flip in the past year. Both went to tax-exempt purposes. To me the real shame of Bayer is not that Yale's going there, but what's not going there - for-profit pharmaceutical. It points to a concern the whole region should share about the lack of growth in the private sector.

"It's fair to say I've had lots of discussions with my staff, with aldermen, with the leadership of the university about this and wrestled a lot about it. I have had concerns, but came to a point of view about it this has less to do with the city than it does with the general concern of mine, the lack of private sector growth.

"Whether you're New Haven, West Haven, or any community, institutional growth is important. But maybe it's time for we in City Hall here in New Haven to think differently about economic growth - not only to partner with the university, but the need to partner elsewhere as well.

Think tank seeks input to capitalize on history of country's former No. 2 steelmaker.

If done right, experts believe, the old Bethlehem Steel plant could be the nation's classroom for those who want to learn about industrial history.

When tourists come to the Sands BethWorks casino and shops planned in south Bethlehem, they could be lured to historic structures, exhibits and tours of the company that made the steel for World War II aircraft carriers, the Golden Gate Bridge and much of the New York skyline.

The story of American industry could be told at other regional attractions, as well, from the cement industry to the north to the flour mills along the Brandywine Creek to the south.

''Ideally, nobody will come to this region without learning about Bethlehem Steel and how industry shaped the mid-Atlantic region, '' said Sharon Ann Holt, program director for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities at Rutgers University-Camden, N.J.

Her comments came during the center's forum Thursday at the Ice House in Bethlehem, where some of the nation's top academics and designers met to help the community come up with ways to redevelop 124 acres of the old plant, between the Minsi Trail and Fahy bridges.

Already planned are a casino with 3, 000 slot machines, a hotel, a shopping center, condominiums, a concert hall and a museum.

The professors at the Center for the Humanities want to develop an overall interpretive plan to guide how the history of the longtime No. 2 U.S. steelmaker can be presented to the public in a concise and gripping way.

Planners in Northern Ireland face heavy criticism over the changing face of our environment. As former head of planning for Belfast, Bill Morrison says, they are fighting a rearguard action

Ten years ago planning policy was easy to understand.

Planners produced slim easy-to-read development plans; they made sure land was available for towns to expand as and when needed; helped to reassure neighbours, and worked with applicants, making timely decisions while ensuring proposed development measured up.

Planning protected precious buildings and valued landscapes and made sure neighbourhood property values were not diminished by ugly structures or nasty uses.

Nowadays very few people have a good word to say about planning - the planners are vilified for doing nothing to stop the destruction of attractive suburbs; condemned for denying humble rural dwellers the right to build a home for their kinfolk, and blamed for driving up the price of houses.

So what has gone wrong?

The fact is things have changed big time, and planning is fighting a rearguard action.

Market conditions may change, of course, but right now in the leafy suburbs of our towns and cities, development is taking place in a form that is altering the character of these areas forever.

Everywhere we see homes being marketed as " development opportunities".

The housing market is behaving like a bull in a china shop, and planning is in trouble.

The surge of apartment developments is not a consequence of planning policy. ...

The Regional Development Strategy is due for review in 2010. We cannot wait that long. We must start work on it now.

What we need is to crank up delivery of more and better homes by systematically releasing more greenfield land, building around transport hubs, and concentrating intensive development in the very hearts of our towns and cities.

Advertisers and searchers can benefit when a search engine collects geographic information from the Web and indexes it by associating that geographic information with a system of overlapping and adjacent geographic boundaries for the locations.

It can mean using considerably less geographically related keywords to bid upon, and on smarter geographically related search results.

A trio of patent applications from Yahoo were published last week which describe some of the strategies and algorithms that Yahoo may use to gather and organize this kind of data, and use it in search results and advertising.

Geographic Boundaries

One of the challenges of creating a database of locations related to web pages, and businesses is that the geographic boundaries that locations appear within can be referred to in a number of ways.

…

Geographic Information Sources and Formats

When a search engine collects geographic information related to Web pages, it draws that information from a lot of different sources. It could buy some information from databases put together by telephone companies, or extract it from directories or even web pages.

…

Yahoo’s Geo-Coding Patent Filings

The patent filings from Yahoo describe methods of locating that geographic information and associating it with particular regions and the bounds of those regions. One focuses upon presenting the geographic information based upon a queried location, one considers how the information might be collected, and the third describes how mobile phones might play a role in this process.

AARP wants to be a world-class workplace with a world-class work force. What sort of workplace behaviors and values will help us realize that vision? We have captured them by using "WORLD CLASS" as an acronym:

Walk the Talk: We lead by example and model the behaviors consistent with a WORLD CLASS culture.

Open: We are open to ideas and freely share knowledge and information.

Recognize: We take the time to recognize, celebrate, and reward our successes and lessons learned.

Learn: We continually learn and apply new knowledge and skills to all that we do.

Decisive: We make and communicate timely, informed, and effective decisions and are willing to change and adapt, as needed.

Creative: We value and encourage innovation, creativity, and risk-taking.

Listen: We listen, trust, and respect one another's views and opinions.

Accountable: We hold ourselves accountable for using resources wisely and for the results we commit to achieving.

Service: We commit to providing valuable service to members and society.

Shared Responsibility: We share collective responsibility for the Association's success.

Examples of WORLD CLASS Behaviors

...

10. U.S. regional communities - sub-State, State or multi-State -in news articles. Highlighted words are Google search terms. In this and the following section, links to websites of organizations are added to the news excerpt when this is the first time an organization has been found. A goal of this newsletter is to find every regional council in the U.S. in a news story. In most cases, where a full name is present a Google search will quickly get one to that organization.

.11ALABAMA VOICES: Vision vital to growthMontgomery Advertiser - Montgomery, AL, USAIn the not so distant past, regionalism was not a popular term, but events have proved that in many cases, regionalism, or the sharing of ideas, plans and resources can provide results which are of great value to the public. ...

.12Survey: Maine lags region in median Internet speedBoston Globe - United StatesThe Communications Workers of America is releasing a 50-state study this month on Internet speeds in each state. The union is using the results in Maine to advance its argument against FairPoint Communications' proposed $2.7 billion purchase of Verizon Communications' landline telephone and Internet businesses in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Union officials say Maine needs faster Internet speeds and FairPoint lacks the resources to deliver them. …

.13Need regional planning to sustain new jobsAlbany Times Union - Albany, NY, USAWhat is not understandable is how they expect the jobs to make a difference in the long run without comprehensive regional planning. ...

nwitimes-comThe Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority on Tuesday gave regional bus service a push forward by agreeing to provide 6.5 million to take commuters to Chicago and establish a central dispatch center for city bus lines.

.16Father who lost son to road debris starts education campaignAZ Central-com - AZ, USADon't Trash Arizona is a joint venture, backed by the Maricopa Association of Governments and Arizona Department of Transportation, that promotes securingloads and decreasing litter. Each year there are more than 80 fatalities and 25, 000 accidents related to road debris nationwide, ...

.17BRAC team faces 'challenge'Baltimore Sun - United States... Charles County board of commissioners and former director of the Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland, the region's planning and development agency. ...

.18REGIONAL: UTILITY PANEL: WATER RATIONING UNLIKELYCBS 5 - San Francisco, CA, USAWater consumption among counties served by the Hetch Hetchy regional water delivery system is down 11 percent, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission announced ...

.20State rejects Clint Eastwood's golf courseLos Angeles Times - CA, USAWednesday's decision was a rather technical one, approving an amendment to a local coastal plan, which is a blueprint for regional development. ...

.21DERBY: Comcast's offer turns off subscribersWaterbury Republican American - Waterbury, CT, USA... Valley officials were less than pleased with the offer, which would give the towns $15, 000 for one year to find their own production companies to produce the programs that Telemedia, the former Valley cable company, used to produce. ... Daniel M. Glanville, the senior director of government relations for Comcast, attended a Valley Council of Governments meeting Wednesday to present the offer and explain Comcast's decision. ...

The goal of the council is to urge cooperation among Wicomico County's various municipalities. Civil issues like disaster protocol, budgets, crime and transportation are just a few areas the council plans to address. Wicomico County Executive, Rick Pollitt, says it will help strengthen the county as a whole. …

The Sullivan County Council of Governments… was formed recently by County Legislature Chairman Christopher Cunningham … formed the group as a means of opening dialogue between county and municipal leaders.

.10Five minutes with Margaret Fay n-e-life-com - Gateshead, UKWhat do you do? I am Chairman of regional development agency One NorthEast, a post I took up in December 2003. I play a key part in some of the major things the Agency is involved in, from building relationships and strengthening links with national and international companies who may move into the region, to supporting local events, organisations and tourism ...

.11Region's firms most optimistic in countryic Newcastle-co-uk - Newcastle, England, UK"The North-East is the most upbeat region in England and Scotland, with a balance of 29% of firms believing that business is getting better, resulting in

.12Aerospace companies aim for Air Show business boostNorthwest Regional Development Agency (press release) - Warrington, England's Northwest, UKNorth West aerospace companies will be heading for Paris International Air Show ... North West Aerospace Alliance (NWAA). ... With assistance from the Northwest Regional Development Agency, the NWAA will be providing facilities and support ...

Regional council Tuesday reaffirmed its commitment to metro’s fast-ferry proposal, although the endorsement was made without the politicians knowing all details of the Bedford-to-downtown plan or the project’s bottom-line cost. ...

.18Regional Focus: Solberg says Atlantic Canada must prepare for futureNova Scotia Business Journal - Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada... region is doing fairly well with regards to graduates completing post-secondary education, yet emphasized that things will prove more difficult in the future. "New jobs that will replace baby boomers retiring are also going to demand people have advanced skills and to have taken some post-secondary education, "...

.20Regional Cooperation 2007, Executive SeminarNewsBlaze - Folsom, CA, USA"Exercise Regional Cooperation 2007 used a very realistic scenario to challenge the ability of participating states to address the consequences of disaster ...

.21PROVINCIAL FUNDING SUPPORTS REGIONAL ADOPTION PROGRAMSVANCOUVER - To promote adoption awareness across BC, the provincial government is providing $210000 to the Adoptive Families Association of BC (AFABC) to support regional adoption programs, announced Children and Family Development...

Employers are being urged to boost public transport in Auckland by giving subsidised fares to staff. The call comes from the Northern Employers and Manufacturers' Association, …

.27Regional power 'is key to growth'East Anglian Daily Times - Suffolk, England, UKBy Sarah Chambers AN industry chief has called for more power at regional level after a report warned that the UK economy could stall without the right ...

.28"East Asia Should Create a Regional Community"Donga-com - Seoul, South KoreaTaking an example of the EU, he said that Asia should develop into a regional community with a shared value and vision. Irie said, "As East Asia took an ...

.29Some crimes are too big for localismTelegraph-co-uk - United Kingdom... into local silos which would simply be too small - on an island where criminals move easily across boundaries - to tackle many of the problems we face. ...

12. Blogs: Highlighted words are Google search terms.

.10 Diversity and Social CapitalBy Creativity Group Now he wanted to find out more about how social capital varied regionally and over time. But the diversity finding was so surprising that Putnam said his first thought was that maybe something was wrong with the data. ...

Today’s Green Week session on the role of cities and regions for climate change policies and sustainability turned out to be a huge disappointment. This is all the more unfortunate if one agrees (like I do) with Margot Wallström’s remark made yesterday that the “fight for sustainability will be lost or won in the cities”. ...

The Mid-America Regional Council is the largest planning agency in the Kansas City metro area …One area that MARC puts much effort into is training local government officials -- including planning commissioners -- on a wide range of topics. Thousands of local officials participate in one or more of these programs each year. …

Beyond altering voting patterns, the dispersal of poverty to the suburbs has the potential to upend a larger idea: that the interests of suburbanites and city dwellers are diametrically opposed. This has been the guiding–if often unspoken–premise driving regional development for decades, one that has played no small part in fueling residential segregation and sprawl. But if cities and suburbs increasingly face many of the same problems, wouldn’t it make sense for them to work together? ...

.16What happened to real leadership?By David Esrati The Dayton Regional Network (DRN) was established about two years ago to attempt to push regional cooperation through service consolidation and other cooperative efforts. An effort sorely needed in the Dayton region. ...

.17204 - Earth's Tree NewsBy olyecology(olyecology) ... the rainforests of south East Asia and the people whose livelihoods rely on these ecosystems will ultimately depend on international support and regional cooperation especially from timber importing countries. ...

.18WiFi in MinneapolisBy Minnesota Stories Help shape the regional community portals by attending a neighborhood meeting and/or taking an online survey. Full video from the speakers at this downtown Wireless Minneapolis meeting will be posted soon. Meanwhile, watch this space ...

.19Lored Hesletine - Local Government City RenaissanceBy David Clifford(David Clifford) Excessive power has been granted to unelected Quangos - who often sit at regional level - including Regional Development Agencies, Learning and Skills Councils, English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation. ...

“Tory plan to give region all-powerful mayor”: “Plans for a revolution in local government, drawn up by Tory grandee Michael Heseltine, would give the mayor of Birmingham more powers than London Mayor Ken Livingstone”. Now this could well be an idea whose time has come. …

.21A Wave of WindBy Geoffrey Styles(Geoffrey Styles) At least regionally, wind is becoming mainstream, rather than niche. The DOE report reflects the reality that practical wind power is not a national phenomenon, partly because of differences in state renewable energy policies, ...

.22How do you want to live?By weirdpixie(weirdpixie) An initiative of the Design Council and the regional development agency, One NorthEast, Dott 07 enables communities and individuals in North East England to collaborate with designers in real-life situations. These projects are small ...

.23Cache County Air is not Wasatch Front AirBy Tom Grover The worst thing that could happen are impeding one size fits all regulations from Salt Lake City or Washington, DC. Let's see if the newly formed Regional Council can come up with a solution and pray that the Legislature and EPA resist ...

.24Santa Fe Gears Up to Accept Regional JetsBy Max Hartshorne(Max Hartshorne) In Santa Fe, NM, things are looking up as the airport there gears up to expand to accept regional jets. In the past travelers had to fly to Albuquerque and drive an hour, according to Jim Montman, the airport director there. ...

.26A Call For A 21st Century Education SummitBy Rep. Jim Splaine How can we look at education even more on a statewide basis rather than just regionally? We can find a way to retain "local control" over schools while being more efficient in the delivery of education. ...

.27Regional recyclingBy Gretchen Schuldt(Gretchen Schuldt) Now, it is suggested, local governments in Wauwatosa, Waukesha and Milwaukee should hold hands and sing the Regional Cooperation theme song over the chance to recycle old beer cans and newspapers in a single facility. ...

.28Tax and Guest Speaker Have More Than Vision in CommonBy Lynda Proceeds would be split into thirds: One-third for property tax relief in each of the 41 communities voting, one-third earmarked for publicly announced government plans and one-third for regional "quality of life" projects. ...

.29Regional Accessibility Champion moves to LASABy Paul Accessibility Champions are organisations in your region that have expertise and equipment to help make computers more accessible for everyone, disabled and non-disabled people alike. As a member of a voluntary or community sector ...

.30CAPL Input to Canada Council Strategic PlanBy Susan McLean(Susan McLean) The availability of a regional Council representative or board in each of the areas of the country to guide organizations through the process would enhance communication and improve the timeliness of selection. ...

.31Greater Downtown - That Vision ThingBy Alan Chamberlain It is worthwhile to reflect on the irreducible elements of any successful and healthy community. These are the "must-haves" without which no community can expect to thrive. These elements manifest across three domains or dimensions; ...

You've never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called "developing world" using extraordinary animation software developed by his Gapminder Foundation. …

Launched in 2004, the Cascadia Scorecard is Sightline Institute's index of sustainability for the Northwest. Developed by Sighltine's research team, the Scorecard tracks the region's performance on trends crtitical to the region's future--and estimates how many years the region is from reaching a real-world model for each indicator.

.12What is a Bioregion?The staff at Ecocity Cleveland defines bioregion as a geographic area of interconnected natural systems and their characteristic watersheds, landforms, ...

The hazards of inadequate planning are seen on congested roads, in overcrowded schools, and in the often extraordinary public expense required to accommodate private development. The Priority Investment Act, approved by the Legislature this year and signed by the governor, will improve the process.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ben Hagood, R-Sullivan's Island, will require local governments to broaden the scope of the mandated comprehensive planning process in terms of the expenditure of public money on waterlines, sewerage, roads and schools.

For example, local planners will be required to notify their counterparts in neighboring jurisdictions about development plans, and allow them the opportunity to respond. It recognizes that the consequences of development cross jurisdictional boundaries.

Gov. Mark Sanford cites provisions for comprehensive transportation planning as well as a requirement to determine where investments of public funds for infrastructure and facilities should occur over a 10-year span.

"We believe this bill is a win for anyone who cares about improving quality of life in our state and for every taxpayer, " he said. The governor cited the pending growth projected for South Carolina, saying the bill is "a step toward preserving the way we look and feel as a state."

The Legislature already mandates a comprehensive planning process by local jurisdictions. Comp plans must be reviewed every five years, and the public must be given the opportunity to comment on their essentials in the process. The review process is under way in both Charleston and Dorchester counties.

The need for regional planning has become apparent, for example, in Dorchester District 2, as rapid development has outstripped the capacity of the school district to provide classroom space.

Other menu sections available from this link include: Regional Development; Regional Council; Regional Commission; Regional America; Regional Asia; Regional Europe; Regional Competition; Regionalism; Intergovernmentaland other search terms. They can be sorted by date or relevance. These are among the 50 search terms I use to produce this newsletter.

My name is Tom Christoffel. I've worked in the field of intergovernmental cooperation since 1973. As a consequence, "I see regions work." Regional Community Development News is published weekly based on news reports as of Wednesday.

Making visible analysis and actions at multi-jurisdictional regional scales is its purpose. "Think globally, act locally" was innovative in its time. Today the local scale is often too small to address today's needs and opportunities. "Think local planet, act regionally, " is my candidate paradigm. (No one said we're only allowed one paradigm.)

We can see that “regional communities” are organized locally and now act both to avoid tragedy in the commons and gain benefits. An effective multi-jurisdictional regional community has DNA: it is geographically Defined; has a common Name and its Alignment is inclusive of smaller communities and participatory in larger communities. So, by scanning this compilation, reading articles and checking organizations - you too will be able to see the regional communities that already exist.

News references are found using the Google News search service. Media article links are “fair use” to transform globally scattered reports to make regional approaches visible. Links go to the publisher and do not compete with it. Such publishers are likely to have related stories and thus be seen by new customers. “Regional” is an emerging news category. There is no charge for this service and no profit is made from its use, though any user can become more aware of the topic itself.

The system is based on a geocode scheme set up for earth that focuses on established political boundaries as a basis for regional grouping of nations, states and localities. It is decimal system based to take advantage of the sort criteria for numbers in computers. It utilized the Sector Group and Region codes of the United Nations and ISO. Geographic information system technology does not solve the problem, but its tools can be used with the geocodes.

The geocode system effectively organizes Wikipedia entries as a library management and the geocodes can be used for data aggregation. This has been developed under a Creative Commons license and would benefit from a global network implementation where local users cooperatively related subnational geographic regions and component political geography.

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Earth ( we know its a spherical whole)

Humanity's Local Planet

Universe Man at the Boundary

Local Planet - Regional Space

Our Local Planet has systems of Political Geographies which combine as Regional/Greater Communities

Universe Man's place on earth is local and regional silmultaneously depending upon the system of regions, sub-regions of the planet as local wholes: continents, nations, states, provinces, districts, counties, shires, municipalities. etc., which have local regions within and between them which are capable of being greater communities at many scales.

Based on my experience as a regional planner and agency director, 1973 -2008, and in recognition of emerging "regional communities," I developed three thoughts about community that relate to the challenge of working across-boundaries as greater or regional communities. The thoughts/theses apply for communities at the scale of bonding or bridging social capital as defined by Robert D. Putnam, which is alternately local or regional. (link below)

As of 2011, considering the global financial crisis brought about by pursuit of the "profit motive," it struck me that this has come to dominate modern life. This is a relatively new invention of civilization and wasn't a concern for most of the time that homo sapiens has been on the planet.

The three thoughts below that had emerged in my experience of working on regional cooperation now represent what I now posit as the "community motive." Concern about "profit" can emerge within an established community over time, but, to my mind the "profit motive" does not exist in the wild.

1) Community precedes cooperation.2) Community is how life solves all problems.3) Security is the primary purpose of community.

These three thoughts, theses if you will, are the basis of the "community motive." Following is some exposition about each one.

As I see it, security has always been the priority for humans since the plains of Africa. That's why communities first seek to establish defensible boundaries. After the basics are in place, security focus shifts to the social and economic. Boundaries work like the membrane in the osmosis experiment most of us have seen in a science class. The membrane is a filter that lets the good things pass through, but keeps unwanted things out. (Osmosis -YouTube - 45 sec.)

The evolved political boundaries of today have consequence. The rules change when you cross them. Though marked on the ground and fortified in some instances, they are conceptual, as pictured above, with Universe Man. The boundary divides the space between local, that within, and regional, everything outside, as labeled in the second panel. The third panel repeats the image within, to show, without graphic elegance, that the land on which Universe Man sits is regional at another scale, as determined by other boundaries, and another area that's local. A territory is both local and regional, depending upon the perspective.

Communities of communities, “regional communities” are greater communities organized to solve a problem, be it managing a watershed, strengthening an economic cluster or ensuring peer competition for school sports. Regional boundaries can be imposed for administrative purposes within states, but for these to be a basis for effective cooperation, a greater community sense is needed for that geography among the people. This is true for multi-state and multi-national regional communities as well. The leaders with such a vision can build a regional community by finding that which is already in place.

This is not to suggest that community is easy to build in order to solve problems. In a crisis, humans of any culture, belief or politics can quickly come together and self-organize to save themselves and others. It was the on-the- ground response to the 9/11 attacks that demonstrated to me the deep responsiveness of human community, as well as the fundamental importance of security. Community is how humans have always survived. This, I think, extends to all life forms.